Portrait Session with Matt Spina

I’m so excited for him and the beginning of so many journeys and opportunities coming his way. With a fresh start staring him in the face it was time to refresh his headshots since we took the last ones 3 years ago!

Matt journeyed to Brooklyn a few weeks ago and we wandered through the streets of Fort Greene, a little of Park Slope, and finished our shoot in Dumbo.

One of Matt’s biggest requests was that he wanted a headshot where he was smiling, his other headshots were more serious or focused, intense and less approachable.

For anyone who has ever forced a smile for a camera, you know that they can end in squinty-eyed sadness. The key is to make sure your face and body are relaxed as a real smile can’t be faked. Chatting and joking can help but you don’t want to over-do it as that can also end up with similar squinting results.

I find it helpful to keep the subject aware of how things are looking, by showing them the results and also encouraging them when I know they’re doing a good job. There really is nothing better than positive reinforcement.

Great results come from partnership and cooperation. Below you can see we had a great time and ended up with some really wonderful smiling and approachable results.

But my favorite shots from the day? They have to be the ones where Matt was “scrubbing away” his facial tension or joking when I told him to “relax your face.”

Clearly not all of these shots are going to be used for his professional headshots, I’ll share those later. For me, the below selects are my favorite shots from the day as they are portraits celebrating Matt’s bold and expressive personality. Enjoy!

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I'll stop when there's nothing more to learn.

Katharine Friedgen: web designer and developer by day, photographer and artist by night. While helping shape the front-end of the ecommerce site Anthropologie.com, Katharine also freelance designs and develops websites and brand identities for small companies, private businesses, and entrepreneurs.

When she's not working you can find her training for her next run or ride, working on her blog, or out with friends exploring a myriad of entertainments in Philadelphia.